er order came requiring them to put the
prisoner to death, and this order was immediately executed.

What was the fate of his courageous and devoted wife has never been
known.

CHAPTER XX.

BATTLES AND SIEGES.

1219-1220

Continuation of the war.--Saganak.--Hassan.--The murdered
embassador.--Jughi's revenge.--Jughi's general policy.--Account of
a stratagem.--The town taken.--A beautiful city.--Toukat.--Toukat
taken.--Arrangements for plundering it.--Kojend.--Timur Melek.--His
preparations for defense.--Engines and battering-rams.--The floating
batteries.--The morass.--Obstinate conflict.--The pretended
deserters.--No more stones.--Building of the jetty.--The horsemen in
the water.--Timur's boats.--The fire-proof awnings.--The fire-boats
and the bridge.--The bridge burned.--Pursuit.--Battle in the
river.--The boats aground.--Timur's adventures.--He finally
escapes.--The governor's family.--Kojend surrendered.

After the fall of Bokhara and Otrar, the war was continued for two
years with great vigor by Genghis Khan and the Monguls, and the poor
sultan was driven from place to place by his merciless enemies, until
at last his cause was wholly lost, and he himself, as will appear in
the next chapter, came to a miserable end.

During the two years while Genghis Khan continued the war against him,
a great many incidents occurred illustrating the modes of warfare
practiced in those days, and the sufferings which were endured by the
mass of the people in consequence of these terrible struggles between
rival despots contending for the privilege of governing them.

At one time Genghis Khan sent his son Jughi with a large detachment to
besiege and take a certain town named Saganak. As soon as Jughi
arrived before the place, he sent in a flag of truce to call upon the
people of the town to surrender, promising, at the same time, to
treat them kindly if they would do so.

The bearer of the flag was a Mohammedan named Hassan. Jughi probably
thought that the message would be better received by the people of the
town if brought to them by one of their own countrymen, but he made a
great mistake in this. The people, instead of being pleased with the
messenger because he was a Mohammedan, were very much exasperated
against him. They considered him a renegade and a traitor; and,
although the governor had solemnly promised that he should be allowed
to go and come in safety, so great a tumult arose that the governor
fou